In "The Lotus Eaters" by Alfred Tennyson, he questions the different perspectives that each individual possesses. By describing the sailors' reality before consuming the Lotus flower and after ingesting the Enchanted Lotus, he brings attention to the idea that various versions of reality exist and the ways in which mind-altering substances can produce alternative or imaginary. of reality. Through a careful reading of the poem and the comparison of the mindset of the sailors in the opening stanzas of the choral song, the reader can come to understand how Tennyson views a flexible reality. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the opening stanza of “The Lotos-Eaters,” Tennyson sets the scene and puts the reader into the poem by describing the strange land the sailors encounter. He states: In the afternoon you arrived in a land / Where it always seemed like afternoon. / All around the coast the languid air fainted, / breathing like one in a tired dream. (3-6) Immediately Tennyson conjures images of dreamlike weariness and exhaustion, creating the atmosphere of the land the sailor encounters. Tennyson continues to elevate the land into a dreamlike, sleepy image. He uses language to allow the reader to understand the languor of the land, using expressions such as “a land of streams” (10) and “slowly falling veils of the thinnest meadow” (11) and “rolling up a sleepy sheet of foam” ( 13) and “the enchanted sunset lingered low” (19). Tennyson's choice of words in describing the land allows the reader to conjure up an image of a lethargic and peaceful land, almost untouched by the destructive, frenetic and complex nature of the Indeed, the earth seems to be almost untouched by time; a land of eternal afternoons, "a land where all things always seemed the same" (24). stark image in contrast to the experiences they have previously endured. After describing the ethereality of the land, Tennyson introduces the natives of the land, a people called the Lotus Eaters. He describes the Lotus Eaters as dark-skinned, but they pale in comparison to the pink of the setting sun. He indicates that they have “mild eyes” and “melancholy,” referring to their calm and languid nature. The introduction of the Lotus Eaters is actually an allusion to Homer's Odyssey, in which the epic hero Odysseus stumbles upon the land of the Lotus Eaters and struggles to keep his crew from the alluring flower. After introducing the natives and describing their lethargic state, Tennyson tells of the flower altering their nature in this way: They brought branches of that enchanted stem, / Loaded with flowers and fruit, whereof they gave to each, but whoever he received, / And pleasure, to him the gush of the wave Far away he seemed to cry and rave / On foreign shores; and if his companion spoke, his voice was thin, like voices from the grave; / And his beating heart made music in his ears. (28-36) The Lotus Eaters provide the sailors with the Lotus fruit and flower, causing an altered state in the sailors. The sailor's reality has changed; the noise of the waves is now humanized, plaintive and delirious; their voices become deadly and thin, at once asleep and wide awake. Sailors even listen to their own heartbeat as they would to music. The Lotus flower alters their mood, providing a hallucinogenic effect that changes their perception of reality. After sailors indulge in lotus flowers and their perception of reality is sufficiently altered, they remember their homeland. However, while they long for their home, ichildren, wives and slaves, the inhibited sailors have no desire to return to sea and undertake the journey to their home island. The change in poetry, and the transition to choric song, occurs in the following lines: Then someone said: “We will never return; / And suddenly they sang: “Our home island is far beyond the wave; we will wander no more. (43-45) As soon as the sailors tasted the Lotus flower, all desire to return home vanished. Their home is simply too far away and the languid state that the Lotus flower presses upon them has dispelled any interest in the journey. At the conclusion of the opening stanzas, the sailors begin to sing, transitioning into choric song into which the rest of the poem dissolves. Choric singing institutes a change in the voice. While the opening verses are written in the third person, the singing of the chorus is written in the first person, as the sailors sing in full. It begins with sailors describing the wonders of the earth. They describe the earth as musical, soft and happy. Tennyson also includes an allusion to further mind-altering drugs: Here the cool mosses are deep, / And through the moss creep the ivies, / And in the stream the long-leaved flowers cry, And from the steep ledge the poppy hangs in sleep . (53-56) The poppy is known to be the source of opium, a hallucinogenic drug that has side effects such as lethargy, which sailors currently suffer from. Tennyson's inclusion of the poppy alludes to the sailors' altered state caused by the lotus flowers and questions their ability to interpret their own reality. Under the influence of the Lotus flower, sailors continue to question the difficulty of their lives. . They consider their own melancholy and tiredness, as well as the anguish of all humanity. They reflect that although humanity is supreme over all other animals and living beings, they are the only creatures who must continually toil while other beings rest. The sailors continue to immerse themselves in a plant in the forest and meditate on its existence from its flowering to its withering, including the fact that the plant "does not toil" (82). The stability and tranquility of the plant's existence compared to the life of the sailors illustrates the complexity of mankind and the changed perspective that sailors have on the nature of the world. After considering the plant's existence, sailors continue to question their own. They reflect on why, if they were to die sooner or later, their life should be tiring. The war and efforts seem futile now; only peace and rest attract inhibited sailors. They sing: Leave us alone. What pleasure can we have / Fighting against evil? Is there peace / in always climbing the climbing wave? / All things rest and ripen towards the grave / In silence; they ripen, fall and cease: / Give us long rest or death, dark death or the tranquility of the dream. (93-98) Death also seems attractive to sailors for any kind of work. The sailors are only interested in the quiet and serene rest, which perhaps they will find on the island of the Lotus Eaters. They wish to remain in this “half-dream,” the state produced by the Lotus flower that allows them to linger between sleep and waking. Their one wish, repeated constantly throughout the poem, is to remain on this island and eat the Lotus flowers, thus adopting the life of the natives: to entirely lend our hearts and spirits / To the influence of mild melancholy; (108-109) Since the sailors originally described the Lotus Eaters as “mild-eyed melancholic ones,” they too wish to be so after allowing their minds to be numbed by the Lotus flower. Although the sailors have no desire to return home, they still remember the.